"I want to rip this poison out by the roots. Keir Starmer, the new president of Labor, was very clear when he took office in April. He planned to finally tackle rampant anti-Semitism in the British Left Party, anti-Semitism which his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, was accused of neglecting, if not tolerating.
Thursday, June 25, the 58-year-old lawyer showed vividly that he intended to keep his word: he ejected from his cabinet Rebecca Long Bailey, in charge of education, his main competitor to the presidency of Labor and above all, the candidate of the left wing of the party, designated heiress of Jeremy Corbin. The young woman had retweeted an interview with British actress Maxine Peake by the newspaper The Independant, which took up the conspiracy thesis that "The tactics used by the police in the United States, one knee on the stroke of George Floyd, was learned during seminars of the Israeli secret services". "Maxine Peake is a pure diamond", said Rebecca Long-Bailey in her retweet.
“Restoring trust with the Jewish community is Keir's number one priority. Anti-Semitism takes a wide variety of forms and it is important to remain vigilant, " a Keir Starmer spokesperson said Thursday, June 25. Rebecca Long-Bailey quickly explained herself on Twitter, asserting that her retweet did not constitute a "Approval of all aspects of the article", without denouncing the conspiracy thesis, nor challenging the decision of its leader. “It is clear that I will continue to support the Labor party in Parliament under the leadership of Keir Starmer. "
Very good beginnings
The British Jewish community reacted very positively to the announcement of his eviction. "Keir Starmer's beginnings are very good, he reassured the Jewish community a lot", explained Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (the main representative body of Jews in the United Kingdom), on Friday at the BBC. This confidence had disappeared under the presidency of Jeremy Corbyn: he had indeed established, during 2017, an internal party system in order to track down abuses deemed anti-Semitic – in particular the frequent attacks against Jewish members of Labor, treaties of Zionists or accused of support Israeli policy. But this system of internal sanctions has proven to be ineffective, to the point that an independent investigation by the British Equality and Human Rights Commission was launched a year ago – it is due to deliver its findings this summer.
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